Look what I got to spend my birthday money on!

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 209 points –

At the risk of once again being told what an idiot I am, healthcare in America sucks. Thanks for the present though, mom. We need all the help we can get.

By the way, feel free to tell me how great my Photoshop skills are. Some people on Lemmy love to tell me how I’m not sick and just making it up for sympathy.

Sorry… is there a community for “I’ve been pissed off for months now?”

71

Happy birthday! There must be a cheaper way to get mayo!

You would think, but those Rochester, Minnesota sandwiches are surprisingly pricey.

Also, thanks!

Having had cancer 20+ years ago as a teen I can vouch that the healthcare system here has ruined my life. Survived the stage 3 head cancer and the side effects? Wonderful! NOW PAY UP FOR THE REST OF YOUR PROGRESSIVELY WORSE LIFE! Ahh joys of unchecked capitalism.

Cancer sucks. Fuck cancer. I’m sorry you had to go through that as a teenager. That makes it even worse. I hope you found a way to manage the side effects without being in too much pain or discomfort.

I'm alive so winning. Didn't mean to be a downer on your birthday. We're in this shit together. Hope your situation with medical improves!

We definitely are, and thanks. No worries about the downer thing, I would be telling everyone about how I was screwed over by the system and my body when the subject came up too.

Happy birthday. I appreciate how much you contribute to Lemmy.

I don't read names of posts all the time, but WOW do they create a lot of the content I see on Lemmy. Thank you FlyingSquid!!!

Yep. As you have probably guessed, I have a lot of time on my hands dealing with this.

Sorry… is there a community for “I’ve been pissed off for months now?”

You new here? And by here, I mean Earth. I've been pissed off for decades. That's just called being alive, and smart enough to observe your surroundings.

I was gonna say… disgruntled people on the internet have been around probably since before OP was born… the grievances and bitching unleashed on Usenet and IRC back in the day could be legendary. ESP on IRC, where users and entire servers would go to war with each other.

The Internet is pretty incredible now, but it used to be a hell of a lot more fun

I agree, but I am on a level of pissed off most people cannot really imagine. Because food is the biggest part of our culture. There is literally nothing more important to our lives than food. You can look on any commercial street and see something to do with food. Advertisements, restaurants, stores, you name it and food is there. Even companies that do not have anything to do with food will have signs on their buildings with food on them. It’s pure torture to not be able to eat anything (which I wish I could do so badly) and it pisses me off to no end. And as it’s gone on longer and longer, it makes me more and more pissed off. I haven’t eaten a solid meal since last August, mostly living on 6 Ensures and 4 V8s a day.

On top of this other issue, I have an extremely painful nerve disorder called trigeminal neuralgia which I’ve been dealing with for about 7 years. Because I won the fucking genetic lottery.

So you can imagine how pissed off I am at this point. If I believed in a god, I would think they were punishing me. But I don’t. Some people have fucked up genetics even if it’s not outwardly obvious and I guess that’s me.

On the other hand, I feel like I have it easy compared to the person that posted a reply that said they got over stage 3 cancer as a teen and have lifelong problems because of it. That would be a whole other level of pissed off I can’t even comprehend.

I didn’t mean to come off as dismissive regarding your situation, simply to say that this isn’t a new phenomenon on the Internet.

I apologize for any offense caused

I’m very sorry to hear about your health problems, and I only wish you the best.

200 bucks? You got off cheap. Did they give you an aspirin?

$200 isn’t the bill. It’s what we can afford to pay.

This month…

Yep. Especially since a huge storm came through yesterday and knocked down trees all over the neighborhood. We just got a quote to remove ours for $3500 and that doesn’t count whatever we will have to pay the neighbors for the damage to their garage. And then another tree destroyed our fence.

I’m just glad our cards have been paid down after a tax windfall or we would be well and truly fucked.

Hell yeah, a medical bill! Fuckin' love throwing excessive amounts of money at basic human needs.

I'm planning to get myself new tires when my birthday comes later this year 🙃

Happy birthday, person I see everywhere I go on Lemmy (not that it bothers me or anything, I just find it funny how often I come across your posts)

I'm so confused

Why are you pissed?

Take your pick:

Long-term illness bringing us down to one income.

High medical bills.

Having to use birthday money to help pay down those bills.

People on the internet telling me I'm lying about it all...

Doesn't your work cover it?

The issue is that health insurance shouldn't be tied to employment. This could very well be a payment plan for a much larger bill, so op is probably paying off $200 a month over a year or more.

Not everyone is so blessed to have a low deductible plan. Most people have high deductible plans. Having a deductible of $6k or more is as good as being uninsured. Most people can not deal with paying $6k for an emergency - it can zero out folks bank accounts or be a hamper on their month to month budget.

Employer provided healthcare only covers about %54 of Americans. So in general it's not a safe assumption.

Doesn't your work cover it?

  1. Probably not
  2. Definitely not with no job

Your birthday is also your cake day? Convenient! Happy both!

my birthday is near my cake day. I got the money a little early.

Hope you’re doing well! Best wishes!

American healthcare sucks unless you’re rich

Happy birthday!

You make Lemmy a more pleasant place to be, not just with your many contributions of great memes, but more importantly with your overall friendly manner. You make a real difference. Thank you.

I certainly enjoy their posts/comments.

Happy birthday! Sorry healthcare in your country is so piss poor.

Crazy how you managed to photoshop the decimal point to the left by so many digits!

(I know, it's only a partial payment)

At least Mayo has decent healthcare most of the time, that's at least what I hear from my colleagues. The elephant in the room in the US is not only the affordability and access, sadly it's also very often the quality.

As someone who has changed roles from an actual healthcare provider to a healthcare economist/manager in international health(amongst others)I am often appalled by the qualify some US facilities provide - while others offer astonishing levels of care. And often the former are the more expensive ones.

Mayo totally fucked me over to the point that I got a partial refund. I was there 10 days, spent maybe an hour seeing people.

damn, sorry to hear that. Most of our clients are pretty happy with them,but they usually are somewhat VIP so mileage may vary.

On the bright side, at least you went to one of the most trustworthy medical institutions there is.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? They didn't help me at all. They were so shitty, I got a partial refund.

Oh damn, I was not expecting that.

I hope you get better soon. Is there any sort of cheap yet good insurance you would qualify for, based on e.g your location, disabilities, income, or anything?

I must admit I don't know a whole lot about the whole system (though a fair bit more than your average European), but I do know there are cases where you can get good health insurance for cheap. Though I'm sure you've already looked into what your options are.